Given the emphasis above, I'm going to throw yet another head into the CIO monster ... "CSO" Of course, this will depend on company size and industry, but it feels like there's a movement for CIOs to become even more proactive with security, even in orgs that have a CISO. Here's the rationale. Given the move to embrace public/private/hybrid/converged cloud infrustructures, security needs to be pervasive, baked-in and/or centrally managed. --Paul Calento

Although I feel it is a 5 headed dragon with the role of a CTO in the mix, the true nature of the job has always been to supply what the business needs are in the future. If this role is still working on the tactical problems of today, it has lost the race at the starting gate. It is my premise that the ordinary CIO role of budget management, OH cost cutting king, and champion of the helpdesk customer service team, is gone. Yes we must do the lights on requirements, but we must now be the incrementally improving organization that improves the business climate of the future.

How, by building both a strategic plan, and an execution plan, that finds its roots in the business unit they serve be it small company or large.

My advice would be that a strategic plan built in a vacuum sucks little or no business into it, but a plan that is born from the business units stands upon the unit it was built from. This may result in a very strategic unit plan that the business can then prioritize more proactively.

As InformationWeek Government readers were busy firming up their fiscal year 2015 budgets, we asked them to rate more than 30 IT initiatives in terms of importance and current leadership focus. No surprise, among more than 30 options, security is No. 1. After that, things get less predictable.